Awareness of the natural ecological processes provided by organisms that benefit human well‐being has significantly progressed towards the goal of making conservation a mainstream value. Identifying different services and the species that provide them is a vital first step for the management and maintenance of these so‐called ecosystem services. Herein, we specifically address the armadillos, which play key functional roles in terrestrial ecosystems, including as ecosystem engineers, predators, and vectors of invertebrates and nutrients, although these roles have often been overlooked. Armadillos can control pests, disperse seeds, and be effective sentinels of potential disease outbreaks or bioindicators of environmental contaminants. They also supply important material (meat, medicines) and non‐material (learning, inspiration) contributions all over the Americas. We identify key gaps in the understanding of ecosystem services provided by armadillos and areas for future research required to clarify their functional role in terrestrial ecosystems and the services they supply. Such information will produce powerful arguments for armadillo conservation.
Ecosystem services provided by armadillos
T. Rodrigues,A. M. Mantellatto,M. Superina,Adriano Garcia Chiarello
Published 2020 in Biological Reviews of The Cambridge Philosophical Society
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- Publication year
2020
- Venue
Biological Reviews of The Cambridge Philosophical Society
- Publication date
2020-02-01
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Business, Environmental Science
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- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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